Year A, Pentecost 18 Philippians 2:1-13
In
this reading from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, we see an area where Paul
really shines…and that is when he’s talking about how to be a community of
faith. Paul has a variety of advice on
how we work for unity within a community. In the reading we have today, he emphasizes
that one of the ways we can truly be a healthy community is by sharing in the
same Spirit -- doing nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility.
That’s not easy advice, is it? We have
witnessed a serious lack of humility in all kinds of places. It feels like more so recently, but perhaps I
am just more aware now.
“Let
the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the
form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but
emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.” You
know that riddle? Could God create a bolder that even God could not move? Turns out…the answer is yes. God emptied Godself when he was born as a
human on this earth. God took on all the
human frailty that we share. God inhabited
a body that was capable of sickness and pain.
He needed sleep and rest just like the rest of us. God didn’t have to make Jesus a real
human. God could have created someone
that looked like a human and sounded like a human, but didn’t have any human
frailty.
That
was aa big debate in the early church. Was Jesus a normal human or did he just
appear that way? They could not wrap
their heads around a God who would accept the limitations of a human body and
would even go so far as to die…to be crucified.
Being crucified was a shameful way to die. The Romans made it into a public spectacle to
humiliate the crucified person and all who were connected to that person. But when Paul talks about the cross and the
crucifixion of Jesus (which he does a fair amount), he doesn’t talk about
humiliation. He said that Jesus “humbled himself and became obedient to the
point of death---even death on a cross.” Apparently the Greek word that Paul
used to describe Jesus’ humility was very unusual. They think that his use of it was unique…that
perhaps he coined it. Later, after Paul died, that Greek word was transformed
into an insult. It was used to describe
someone who was weak.
I
have talked about an illness that I experienced 4 years ago probably too often
and I am going to talk about it again as it was a formative experience for me. I
had a horrible infection in my leg that required multiple surgeries. After the first surgery, they wanted me to
stay in bed for as much as possible.
Usually after surgeries they get you up right away, but that was not the
plan for me. So after two weeks in the
hospital they removed all the wrapping on my leg. It was painful as it pulled
off a lot of skin. I cried a lot. When I was done crying from the pain, I
looked at my leg and burst into tears again because my muscles had totally
atrophied. I could no longer pick up my leg on my own. I couldn’t believe that
I could lose all my strength in two weeks.
That is how frail the human body is. I have never felt so embarrassed by
my own weakness. No matter how much they
explained that I would get my strength back, I couldn’t see past my own
weakness. Obviously, I regained my
muscle…eventually. But I have to remind
myself sometimes that wasn’t some innate weakness that was unique to me. It’s just the human body. It totally baffles
me that Jesus took that human body…by choice.
We don’t reward humility. We reward strength,
excellence and confidence. If that is
what we consistently reward, consistently honor in others, then we can’t ever
have a truly inclusive community—one where we celebrate having the same mind,
the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Because the way we put valuations on others
and ourselves is by constantly comparing ourselves to others. Right? We see that so much in social media
right now…but it’s not just on social media. It’s always been like that. That is what Paul is saying we can’t do in a
Christian community. We can’t determine
our own value by putting others down.
Paul
encouraged the Philippians and us to let the same mind be of us in that is in Christ
Jesus…who emptied himself. What would that look like…to empty ourselves? I don’t
know, but I think it’s worth considering and praying for. When I pray for
others and myself, I pray for strength.
I rarely pray for humility. There
is a part of me that thinks that humility just comes from failures and I don’t
want any more of them. I feel like I have had my fill. But that’s not what humility is. It’s not a consolation prize we get for
failing. Humility is what comes when we
voluntarily give up some of our own power or authority so someone else can rise
up. In emptying ourselves, we are
allowing someone else to be filled. That is what Jesus did for us and continues
to do. It’s also what we can do for one
another.
One
of the things I love about baptism is that it’s a gift that Jesus gave to us in
the way he lived his life, his death and his resurrection. It’s a gift. There are other denominations
that only baptize people when they have the maturity to state what they
believe. We don’t require that. We baptize people because they are a child of
God. Nora and Mae are special and
beloved and I am sure they will do all kinds of wonderful things with their
lives. But that is not why we baptize
them. We baptize them because Jesus
already provided this gift. They are children of God, and please, make sure to
remind them of that…when nothing else seems to be going well….when they feel
like a failure. Remind them that they
are children of God and that matters more than anything else.
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